New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's wife Chirlane McCray arrives at Northside Center for Child Development to meet Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge on December 8, 2014 in New York City. Photo Credit: Getty Images / Neilson Barnard

New York City's first lady Chirlane McCray requested a deferment Thursday from jury duty in Brooklyn, saying last-minute appearances relating to her duties may make it hard to serve in court until the end of her husband's first term in 2018, her spokeswoman said.

Mayor Bill de Blasio separately said his wife can serve this fall but first must help prepare the couple's children, Chiara, 19, and Dante, 17, for college.

"I think every citizen has a right to ask for a postponement, but they must serve," de Blasio said at an unrelated event in the South Bronx. "She's going to serve in October after she gets her children to college."